Evolutionary Footprint: A Systemic Indicator in Evolution, Ecology and Conservation

The growing awareness of evolutionary responses to human-induced environmental changes highlights the need to better understand and integrate evolutionary perspectives into the life sciences and, more broadly, into biodiversity conservation. Evolutionary changes are complex and multi-causal, spanning numerous timescales. The developing fields of eco-evolutionary dynamics, genomics and non-genetic inheritance are enriching knowledge in this area. To better integrate and value these changes, we propose a framework for the concept of an ‘evolutionary footprint’, defined as the impact of a driver on the micro- and macroevolutionary trajectories of a biological entity. By selecting metrics that capture changes in adaptive traits, genetic diversity, macroevolutionary processes, and phylogenetic patterns, and by interpreting the magnitude of these changes relative to natural history baselines, we provide a quantitative method for scoring evolutionary footprints. We illustrate the framework with two case studies, one concerning the evolution of a plant species in response to human-induced pollinator decline and another addressing the potential human impact on a mammal taxon. We discuss the challenges of integrating different timescales and levels of biodiversity within the framework, as well as the difficulties of predicting evolutionary changes, accounting for non-genetic processes, and developing the necessary databases. We expect that this new type of indicator will promote the development and integration of knowledge about evolutionary processes and eco-evolutionary dynamics into conservation sciences. We also anticipate that this framework will offer new insights and avenues for an evocentric approach to biodiversity conservation.

Evolutionary Applications